THE
JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD – ISAIAH 24
By Dr. Stephen Jones
Blog
Post Date: 8-1-2020
After giving us prophecies about many nations,
Isaiah 24 is a prophecy of judgment on the earth, focusing particularly upon
Jerusalem, which was thought to be the heart of the earth. Indeed, Jerusalem is
near the center of the land mass between Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Isaiah 24:1 begins,
1 Behold, the Lord
lays the earth [eretz] waste, devastates it,
distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants.
The Hebrew word eretz can mean the earth as
a whole or a portion of the earth (country or tribal territory). It can mean
the earth in contrast to heaven, or it can mean the land rather than the sea.
It is often used figuratively of the inhabitants themselves. The meaning of the
term is broad enough to cover all these aspects, making it often difficult to
know the application and scope of prophecy. We must rely on context to
understand the prophecy in Isaiah 24.
Isaiah
24:10-12 applies the judgment on the earth to “the city of chaos”
(vs. 10) and “the city and the gate” (vs. 12). This applies the prophecy
specifically to Jerusalem. But later, the judgment is said to come upon “the
host of heaven on high and the kings of the earth on earth” (Isaiah 24:21).
So it appears to have at least two layers of application, one universal and the
other local.
Perhaps the prophet considered Jerusalem to be a
representative of all nations and of the earth itself, even as a nation’s
capital represents the whole of a nation. The capital is the seat of authority.
So we often see elsewhere how Babylon is not only a city but also represents a
large land mass wherever its authority was found.
Prior to the Babylonian captivity, Jerusalem had
been given the Dominion Mandate, because its kings were of David and of the
tribe of Judah to whom the Dominion had been given (Genesis
49:10). If Jerusalem had indeed exercised its authority properly, its
Dominion would have increased gradually until it filled the whole earth.
But it failed to fulfill the covenant, and so God
gave the Dominion Mandate to Babylon (Jeremiah 27:6,
7).
The Mandate was later passed down to Babylon’s successor nations until the time
of the end, when the Dominion was to be given to “the saints of the Most
High” (Daniel
7:22 KJV) who serve under Jesus Christ’s universal authority.
The earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly city are
clearly presented to us in Galatians 4:25, 26
and again in Hebrews 12:22 and in Revelation
21:1. This adds to our understanding of Isaiah 24, because it shows that
the earthly Jerusalem is not only the “bondwoman” but is also the “city
of chaos” (Babylon) that is to be “cast out” (Galatians
4:30). I believe that this is how we are to view Isaiah’s prophecy against
Jerusalem and the entire system of bondage that is represents.
In other words, God is not going to turn the
bondwoman (Hagar) into the free woman (Sarah) but intends to cast out the
earthly Jerusalem in favor of the heavenly Jerusalem. This is how we are to
understand Isaiah 24 in the light of New Testament revelation. This
understanding shows how the city (and land) relates to the kings of the whole
earth.
How is the Earth Judged?
Isaiah 24:1 says that God “lays the earth waste,
devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.”
The distortion of the earth is defined in Isaiah 24:2,
3,
2 And the people
will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her
mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor
like the debtor. 3 The earth will be completely laid waste [baqaq,
“emptied, made void”] and completely despoiled [bazaz,
“plundered”], for the Lord has spoken this word.
We cannot assume that God is going to distort the
surface of the earth in a physical manner, although we might see signs of this.
When China built its Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric power plant in
the world, it was said that the reservoir made the earth a bit rounder and
flattened the poles slightly. While this distortion of the earth may be taken
as a sign of the fulfillment of Isaiah 24:1,
it was not the main picture that the prophet was painting for us.
Isaiah saw this distortion in terms of a disruption
of normal relationships. When disaster would hit a nation, everyone found
himself in the same danger. Servants and masters were suddenly put on an equal
footing.
People were no longer creditors or debtors, for all
might go into captivity as equals. In other words, the prophet envisioned this
devastation and distortion in terms of status and relationships between people.
He said nothing about physical changes in the earth.
Isaiah 24:4 continues,
4 The earth mourns [aval]
and withers [nabel, “to be senseless or foolish”], the world
fades [amal, “droops” (its head)] and withers [nabel],
the exalted of the people of the earth fade [amal] away.
It is a picture of the rich and powerful losing
their power and strength. Their slaves or servants have become their equals.
Nothing seems to make sense anymore, for the whole earth has become senseless
and foolish. No one understands what is going on. The prophet sees people
walking around in a state of shock and disbelief as their world crashes down
upon them.
The Curses for Disobedience
Isaiah 24:5, 6
says,
5 The earth is also
polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes,
broke the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the
earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants
of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
The prophet sees this devastation in terms of the
law of tribulation in Leviticus 26 and again in Deuteronomy 28. Leviticus
26:14, 15, 16
says,
14
But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, 15
if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My commandments,
and so break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you…
Deuteronomy
28:15 says,
15
But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do
all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all
these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Moses then lists many “curses” that were to come
upon them. The curse of the law is the judgment for sin. Isaiah says that
Jerusalem had followed the ways of the whole earth in its rebellion against the
laws of God, and for this reason, the curses that God promised in the days of
Moses had been unleashed upon the city. He says, “the inhabitants of the
earth (or the land) are burned.”
This refers to the “fiery law” in Deuteronomy
33:2 KJV, whose judgment is said to burn men figuratively. The baptism of
fire which the Holy Spirit brings is designed to burn chaff (Matthew 3:11,
12),
that is, to purify us from the things of the flesh. When the law judges sin, it
burns chaff so that the sinner may be restored to right standing before God.
The scene that Isaiah paints for us is obviously a
time of divine judgment. It was fulfilled partially in Isaiah’s day when 46
cities of Judah were taken by the Assyrians and its people exiled to Assyria. A
century later the prophecy was fulfilled in a greater way when Jerusalem was
destroyed and the survivors were exiled to Babylon, leaving few behind.
He then describes the scene in Isaiah
24:7-9,
7 The new wine
mourns [aval], the vine decays [amal],
all the merry-hearted sigh. 8 The gaiety of tambourines ceases, the
noise of revelers stops, the gaiety of the harp ceases. 9 They do
not drink wine with song; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
In verse 7 we read that “the new wine mourns,”
while in verse 4 we read that “the earth mourns.” The Hebrew word
translated “mourns” in both cases is aval, “to mourn or lament.” New
wine does not literally mourn, of course, but Isaiah uses metaphorical language
to describe the lack of wine, perhaps because vineyards have been neglected.
“Few men are left” (verse 6) in the land to tend the vineyards,
and few are there to drink the wine.
Again, the prophet uses the same words found in
verse 4. It is a picture of sadness and depression. The people drink but are
not happy. They drink to forget their bitterness but do not find any happiness.
Isaiah
24:10-12 says,
10
The city of chaos [tohu, “void, formless, confusion”]
is broken down; every house is shut up so that none may enter. 11
There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine; all joy turns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished. 12 Desolation is left in the
city and the gate is battered to ruins.
Isaiah compares Jerusalem with the original
creation that became tohu “formless” and bohu, “void” (Genesis 1:2).
We are not told how or why the original creation became formless and void, but
Isaiah tells us the reason why Jerusalem was to be so judged. It was because
they had forsaken the laws of God and because God had promised to judge them
for doing this.
After speaking of the judgment upon Jerusalem and
the earth as a whole, Isaiah abruptly turns his attention to the overcomers,
who are pictured as gleanings in the time of harvest.
Shaking the Tree
Isaiah 24:13,
14
says,
13
For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking
of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over. 14
They raise their voices, they shout for joy; they cry out from the west
concerning the majesty of the Lord.
The harvest is when men shake the olive trees, but
the olives are not shaken by events. While the city and the earth have no joy
and are depressed, with their heads drooping, there are a few (the “gleanings”)
who “shout for joy.” The contrast is striking.
We have already seen previously in Isaiah 17:5,
6
how Isaiah speaks of the gleanings in terms of the overcomers and how the
gleanings represent the overcomers—those set apart and devoted to God for His
use (Deuteronomy
24:20). Isaiah does not fail to give hope to the righteous in the midst of
general despair.
In fact, one of the marks of an overcomer is that
he is not shaken, for Psalm 55:22 says, “He will never allow the righteous to
be shaken.”
Haggai 2:6,
7
says,
6 For thus says the
Lord of hosts, “Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens
and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the
nations…”
Hebrews
12:27 interprets this, saying,
27
The expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can
be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain.
This, then, should be our worldview. We are
observing the harvest at the end of the age. We see the great shaking taking
place, and many olives are falling to the ground in the harvest. However, we
ourselves are not shaken but remain in the olive tree to feed the fatherless,
the widow, and the orphan who have no covering other than God Himself.
Isaiah 24:15,
16
continues,
15
Therefore glorify the Lord in the east, the name of the Lord, the God of
Israel, in the coastlands of the sea. 16 From the ends of the earth
we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One”….
The overcomers “from the ends of the earth”
are heard singing a song entitled, “Glory to the Righteous One.” They
rejoice, for they know that the time of harvest will benefit them and that the
“Kingdom which cannot be shaken” will remain standing (Hebrews
12:28).
But only a few have this hope. Only a few are able
to rejoice.
No Way to Escape
The prophet continues in the latter part of Isaiah 24:16,
17,
16
… But I say, “Woe [raziy] to me! Woe [raziy]
to me! Alas [oy] for me! The treacherous deal treacherously, and
the treacherous deal very treacherously.” 17 Terror [pakhad]
and pit [pakhath] and snare [pakh] confront you, O
inhabitant of the earth.’
Raziy is translated “leanness”
in the KJV. That is the literal meaning of the word. It is from the root word razah,
“to grow lean, famish, emaciate, consume, destroy.” The prophet was giving
voice to those around him who were being shaken by the destruction. This is
what he was hearing and (as an intercessor) was feeling on behalf of others. He
himself was one of the righteous who could not be shaken.
The NASB renders it “woe to me!” Perhaps it could be better
understood to picture men crying out, “All is lost! We are being consumed! We
are being destroyed!”
The Hebrew text of Isaiah 24:17
reads, “pakhad vapakhath, happa vappakh,” using words with similar
sounds as a play on words. “Terror and pit and snare” are what await
those who are being shaken in the time of judgment.
Isaiah 24:18
says,
18
Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster
[pakhad] will fall into the pit [pakhath], and he who
climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare [pakh]; for the
windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.
The prophet gives them no way to escape certain
judgment, no matter how they may try to escape. The solution, of course, is to
walk by faith, not in fear.
Breaking the Earth
Isaiah 24:19,
20
says,
19
The earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken
violently, 20 the earth reels to and fro like a drunkard and it
totters like a shack [sways like a chair that is suspended from
above], for its transgression is heavy upon it, and it will fall, never to
rise again.
The prophet may have been remembering the great 8.0
Richter earthquake that had shaken both Israel and Judah when Isaiah was young.
This was the main focus of Amos, who prophesied to Israel two years before the
quake. (See Amos
1:1 and chapter 1 of my commentary, Amos,
Missionary to Israel.). The quake was so strong that it weakened Israel and
caused a 24-year interruption of Israel’s monarchy. Assyria then took advantage
of Israel’s weakness and began to conquer and deport the Israelites from
745-721 B.C.
Hence, Isaiah’s metaphor of shaking of the olive
tree was well illustrated by the great earthquake that had struck the land
earlier. Many still remembered how the land appeared to reel to and fro like a
drunkard. But Isaiah was speaking of a later time, essentially an end-time
repeat that was to collapse the governments of the entire earth in some way. It
is likely that we will witness another great earthquake—or, more likely, a
series of earthquakes affecting many parts of the earth—that will weaken the
nations and bring about the collapse of governments.
Isaiah 24:21,
22
says,
21
So it will happen in that day, that the Lord will punish the host of heaven on
high, and the kings of the earth on earth. 22 They will be gathered
together like prisoners in the dungeon and will be confined in prison; and
after many days they will be punished.
How will God “punish the host of heaven on high”?
Are the sun, moon, and stars to blame for the sins being done on the earth? The
heavenly bodies were worshiped in the religious systems on earth, and so this
is meant to convey divine judgment upon the gods of idolaters. Similarly, the
ten plagues in the days of Moses brought judgment upon the gods of Egypt.
The idea is to discredit false gods and undermine
false religion so that the people turn to worship the Creator rather than the
creatures.
Likewise, the kings of the earth will be arrested
and “gathered together like prisoners in the dungeon.” When the prophet
says, “after many days they will be punished,” we may interpret this in
two ways. It may be that these kings will be confined in prison for “many days”
before they are actually brought to trial—or the prophet may be telling us that
these events will be fulfilled in the future “after many days.”
Judging the Heavens
Isaiah 24:23
concludes,
23
Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts will
reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. And His glory will be before His elders.
31
The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great
and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it will come about that
whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and
in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among
the survivors whom the Lord calls.
This literally occurred on the day of Christ’s
death on the cross. First, the sun was darkened for three hours from noon to
mid-afternoon (Luke 23:44). Then at 5:10 pm, when the full moon rose over
Jerusalem, it was already eclipsed and appeared blood-red. (See The
Laws of the Second Coming, chapter 1.)
It is scientifically impossible for a solar and
lunar eclipse to occur on the same day. The lunar eclipse was natural, but the
darkening of the sun was supernatural. The result of Christ’s death on the
cross was that “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered,”
which the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans 10:13.
Yet it is clear that this prophecy must be
fulfilled again about the time of the second coming of Christ, because not
everything was fulfilled at His first coming. Both Isaiah and Joel clearly say
that Christ will rule “on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem” but His right to
rule remained in dispute and in legal limbo for 2,000 years, as we see from
Jesus’ parable (Luke 19:14 and 27).
That dispute would not be resolved until just prior
to His second coming, and only then can He lawfully enforce the ruling in the
Divine Court and take His throne. Meanwhile, the kingdom in the past 2,000
years has been a manifestation of the kingdom of Saul, the Pentecostal king.
This must give way to the kingdom of David, who was crowned on a Jubilee and
whose kingdom is manifested through the feast of Tabernacles.
To understand both Isaiah and Joel, of course, we
must understand that Zion and Jerusalem were both disqualified as physical
locations and were replaced with Sion and the New Jerusalem. Sion is Mount
Hermon (Deuteronomy
4:48), the place where Jesus later was transfigured and declared to be “My
beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5). It has become the prophetic place where all
believers must rally around Him, as prophesied in Hebrews
12:22 KJV.
Genesis
49:10 KJV tells us that the people were to rally around “Shiloh,” a
reference to the coming Messiah, “and unto Him shall the gathering of the people
be.” It pictures the people united in choosing a leader and swearing
allegiance to obey Him. So also Hosea 1:11
tells us that Israel and Judah would one day be reunited under the headship of
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:22 KJV, along with verses 23 and 24, adds that
Mount Sion is where the sons of God unite in swearing allegiance to the
Messiah.
The point is that it is no longer Zion but Sion,
even as it is no longer the earthly Jerusalem but the heavenly Jerusalem. None
of the Old Testament prophets distinguish between the two Jerusalems, but the
two cities are clearly distinguished by Paul in Galatians
4:25, 26 and by John in Revelation
21:2. The Old Jerusalem is “Hagar” and must be “cast out” in favor of
“Sarah,” the heavenly Jerusalem. Zion is part of the Old Jerusalem and must
also be cast out in favor of Sion, which is the seat of government for the New
Jerusalem.
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